There is always a frustration when politics seems laborious, filled with bureaucracy, and frankly, just slow. Additionally, there are expenditures that are confusing and seem inflated. And then there is an attempt to change the system. At the surface, it seems logical and in line with general business practices. Who doesn’t want to achieve more at a lower cost?
But on the other hand, there is a challenge in politics that is absent in the rest of the business world. This isn’t the place where we are trying to make a buck but rather, we are trying to run a nation, protect our people, and maintain functional states. In short, we have competing goals. And more than that, we have no clear deliverables.
What are we selling?
Saying that we want to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (defense), promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity sounds great…until you ask the question, “How?” and then when you require others to pay for it while not necessarily clarifying what they are buying…it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that people will be upset – for one reason or another. Our nation is too diverse in beliefs not to expect such differences of opinions.
Yet, as it is said in the military, what is our mission goal? What does mission success look like? And how do we come together to achieve that goal faster, better, and as a group, rather than based on one individual belief?
If it were easy, it wouldn’t be politics 🙂
This is why our founding fathers displayed such brilliance (my perspective). They had no knowledge or understanding of what would come in the future. The internet, the world wide data ocean, the concept of space flight were all inconceivable. But the recognition that life would be different, that the world would advance, that part was predictable. So they had only to design a flexible but stable set of parameters that would allow us to both maintain structure while also evolving as needed. This is the basis of the balance of power concept. With three branches and checks across them, we have a strong system….until….
The catch in this system is the ability to find holes in the fabric, the chain of connections. There are rules about how the congress represents each state. When it’s functional, the state representatives find win-win situations across the nation. When it’s dysfunctional, the required distribution of power results in gridlock and while this means little happens, it also means less fails. In and of itself, the messiness of politics that frustrates us also helps maintain stability.
But what happens when there is control from one branch to another? What happens when there is a consolidation of departments and people within and across the state and federal levels – across the three departments at the federal level? The word efficiency is used….but if we see the forest instead of the trees, the impact of power consolidation can be better seen and understood. In business, this can create a very brittle system because it relies on only a single viewpoint. In politics, it can result in a ruling class – controlled by a single entity. Regardless of personal beliefs, the greatest asset in our nation is diversity because it ensures and protects the strength and flexibility of our system. Consolidation of power negates this global asset and jeopardizes our future stability.
Of paramount concern should be the protection of equity because the nation that optimizes all its assets is the nation that will maintain its global leadership status.